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Elon Musk is now the third richest person in the world.
Musk surpassed Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday as Tesla Inc. shares continued their relentless rally after suffering a future stock split. Musk is now worth $ 115.4 billion (R1.9 trillion) compared to Zuckerberg’s $ 110.8 billion (R1.85 trillion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Also on Monday, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott became the richest woman in the world, beating out L’Oreal SA heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers. Scott, 50, who received a 4% stake in Amazon.com Inc. as part of her divorce from founder Bezos, is now worth $ 66.4 billion (R1.1 trillion).
Musk, 49, has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth, with his net worth growing by $ 87.8 billion this year, as Tesla shares jumped nearly 500%.
Tesla, a favorite among hobbyists in online trading firm Robinhood Financial, has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the retail investment boom during the pandemic closures.
At one point last month, nearly 40,000 Robinhood accounts added Tesla stock over a single four-hour span. And the trend is not limited to the United States: South Korean retail investors have joined Tesla this year and have a 1% stake in the American automaker.
Tesla’s market value of $ 464 billion now surpasses that of retail giant Walmart Inc., America’s largest company by revenue.
Last week, Musk joined Zuckerberg, Bezos and Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates in the rarefied centimillionaire’s club as tech stocks surged.
The dizzying pace of wealth accumulation in recent months contrasts with the state of the world economy. Growth has plummeted dramatically since the pandemic began, when companies laid off millions of workers and consumer demand fell.
The brunt of the economic pain has fallen on younger and lower-paid workers, whose jobs are often more vulnerable to Covid-related layoffs.
Rising income inequality has elicited strong responses from many progressive politicians and critics on the left. US Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation this month to tax “extreme gains of wealth” during the pandemic.
Musk still has a long way to go to become the richest person in the world. Bezos is worth more than $ 200 billion (R3.36 billion).
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